I've always loved the way movie stars in the Forties looked when they were off set. Shot poolside or at their home, they always wore a matte red lipstick with practically no foundation - it was how they wore makeup in real life.

I chose makeup over photography because there was something very sensual about makeup that I loved. But photography was always in the back of my mind. That was always something that I was very connected with: looking at magazines, enjoying photography, and then taking pictures myself when I was a kid.

Transparency is more sexy than a full, pancake finish.

I would find myself in these photo shoots with models and makeup, and I got swept up in it all.

When I was a kid, I loved photography, and I loved makeup.

I like shocking, but I don't like to shock as an automatic process. Sometimes it happens, but it's not my main drive.

As a make-up artist, you always want to be in a good light, whether you're walking down the street or in a restaurant. It is a very key element to me; you can't apply good make-up in a bad light.

I met Iman and Jerry Hall and all those girls in the late Seventies right when I started working at the fashion shows in Paris as an assistant.

I think it's important that you know every detail when you open a store, that you pay attention to everything.

I wanted to be a make up artist. I did it, and the road that I took was quite good.

I always had a vision about beauty in general, so probably that's what really drove me into that direction of creating a makeup brand.

Makeup is very important for a show. It's really an accessory on the runway. You have to be sure that it fits the clothes.

We love those under-eye circles. It's real life.

Even with - the best make-up in the world won't look good if you don't cleanse and exfoliate and have a good basic regime. This is why one of my goals has always been to create a skincare line.

It was the early Seventies, and I discovered makeup by going through my mother's fashion magazines. I fell in love with the photos, the models, the fashion.

I'm not so interested in perfect, plastic beauty, and I think it translates in the girls I've shot over the years for Nars, from Guinevere to Iris to Mariacarla. I love those girls. I love the more interesting faces, with maybe a strange nose, not just the Texan blonde. By picking those girls, I think it's changed what I've seen in other campaigns.

It's not that I'm easily shocked. It takes a lot to shock me. And wildness I like. But vulgarity shocks me.

Sometimes I'm attracted to more odd girls with stronger faces and features or a softer beauty with a lot of character.

I don't think there's a major change between runway and real life anymore.

My interpretation of the word 'ugly'... I like ugly beauty. That can happen. In France, we have phrase 'jolie laide.' We like certain women who are not pretty or cute - it's the opposite in France of pretty. It's more strange and interesting.

It's more fun to have a name rather than a number. I think this gives our products a personality. I get the names from literature, movies, opera, traveling, nature, poetry, sometimes even the street. I keep a small book that I write in. I wake up in the middle of the night and jot down a name for a lipstick or an eyeshadow.

Women don't want to feel like they're wearing makeup. I hope I was partly responsible for that.

When you photograph someone, you have to make them feel good, and you know that they want to look good. It's the same relationship that you have when you apply makeup on somebody. We're almost like shrinks.

Women have to find their own personality, their own style, and what suits them the best.

Women are being more experimental with eye color.

I never stop thinking about names of products. It's a process that happens 24 hours a day.

It really has stayed practically the same. It wasn't like I used to do wild punk make-up: no, I always had the same vision.

I think less is more when it comes to make-up; this really helps achieve a lighter complexion. Heavy make-up creates a canvas and can dull the skin.

Kate Moss makes you dream. She has such a passion for art and the creative process.

There was a time when you would dream about, say, movie stars. Now, you virtually follow them into their bathroom when they're going to the loo.

My mother and my two grandmothers, I was lucky to have three women around me growing up that were very special, very elegant women, very beautiful women. They were my first step into the beauty world, let's say, and then the fashion world, of course.

I never thought make-up was like brain surgery.

I really wanted to have a different approach of beauty because when I came to America, they were still heavily, heavily plastic. The ads were so heavily retouched.

I'm always scared of trends. The runways are always so trend-oriented, but I always feel for the women. The real women that buy cosmetics want to see the trends, but they don't necessarily go for them. And I always encourage women to find what looks best on them.

I fell in love with New York. I moved here 25 years ago in 1984 after I lived in Paris for six years. In the 1980s, it was the place to be. Here I was able to create NARS, which I would not have been able to create if I stayed in France.

I'm very nostalgic - and I don't care.

I think there was a freedom in the 1920s and 1930s: a certain liberty and evolution of women.

I was spoiled growing up in the 1970s because magazines were publishing the photographs of Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin without compromise. You really felt that sense of freedom through their images.

I think Edie Sedgwick comes back, too. Every five or six years, there is always something about Edie, because she was so modern and stylish and elegant and hippie-ish, all at the same time. So I think that people will always love her.

Women are very unpredictable.

I loved working with Avedon.

I'm not an easily depressed person.

I love the dramatic idea of having nothing on.

I've seen makeup destroy people and make them look bad if it's badly done.

In a lot of cases, makeup is a fantastic help, and that's why women love makeup in general. It's a fantastic way to help somebody look great. It's not the only way, of course, but it's a major accessory, along with hair, clothes, lighting, all those things.

Being a studio make-up artist and working on magazines was the only thing I wanted to do.

My vision was to create makeup that was more transparent but with formulas that last. I follow my instincts - it's all very spontaneous!

It's one thing to read about how makeup is applied. It's another thing altogether to watch it being put on.

I have always been attracted to faces that are different.

Makeup can make a woman look more beautiful at every age.